Chef Mathur publishes book titled Culinary Economics in which he speaks extensively on the various ways a food business can become more streamlined and profitable. Mathur has devised 11 control points in the business where costs can be reduced.

BW HOTELIER got the chance to speak with Chef Y B Mathur who retired from ITC in 2009 after decades of service. Mathur is currently the Executive Director, Culinary Design & Application Group and travels extensively lecturing on culinary science. Mathur has gone on to concentrate on training, an area which he feels is crucial and sadly lacking in the industry at present. We met up with Mathur to discuss his new manual 'Culinary Economics'. Here are excerpts of our chat.

Mathur began by telling us about working as a consulting executive chef at a project in Goa and discovering how wasteful people were in the industry. He was in charge of all the F&B com sets.

"This book is strongly supported by ITC. A team of senior general managers sat down in a committee and examined its contents for three months," Mathur began by telling us. 

"The book talks mainly of areas where entrepreneurs, trainers and chefs don't even look at--areas which constitute a lot of costs and wastage. For example keeping the right inventory in stores can reduce cost by four to five percent," he told us. 

Potential cost of a project may be 5 to 6 percent less than what is calculates, he explained, the difference can be gotten from various sources including having correct supplier relations, making sure purchase specifications are correct for the business, as well as how to control cost areas, he explained. "In this book for the very first time, probably in the industry, I have devised 11 control points where costs can be reduced towards a more profitable business," he added.

The book is not only about food cost. It talks about business economics. How to bring in economics and make sure that the business is more profitable, from business plan to menu planning, Mathur said.   

Mathur took nine months to put the book together. But the knowledge which has gone into this was a whole careers worth, he says. The book has been published by IK Publishers. The book will be available on Amazon as well as eventually on Kindle (though this version will not have the organisational charts which come with the physical book), Mathur added.